This past weekend (October 23-25, 2015), I attended the fourth annual DogCon, the annual convention hosted by my publisher, Raw Dog Screaming Press. Its a wandering convention, and this year we took over Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!
The first event on Friday night was a lecture by Michael Arnzen, who spoke about the “popular uncanny” (think uncanny valley) at Neumann University. Arnzen is releasing a nonfiction book on this topic soon from Guide Dog Books, RDSP’s nonfiction imprint!
Because RDSP started life publishing a lot of horror, we had a lot of horror themed events. (The Dog Star authors need to do something about that next year….) On Saturday morning, we toured Eastern State Penitentiary.
That afternoon, some friends and I split from the main group. We headed for the Mütter Museum, which holds a collection of medical oddities. It was pretty crazy how much knowledge I’ve accidentally gleaned from working at a medical journal for 10 years.
That evening was the main event, the Nightmare Before Halloween at PhilaMOCA. There were readings by a dozen RDSP/Dog Star authors, we launched ALL THE DARKNESS IN THE WORLD by Andy Deane, and Steven Archer (of Ego Likeness) played his solo project, Stoneburner! For me, the highlight of the event was when Matt Betts passed on the fancy belt to this years Reader’s Choice Award winner, Stephanie Wytovich, for her poetry collection MOURNING JEWELRY!
I finished up the evening way too late at a bar (as writers do), hanging out and catching up with so many great friends. The next morning, a smaller group of us toured Laurel Hill Cemetery. Our tour guide tailored our visit with literary highlights!
For the final event of the weekend, we headed up to Farley’s Bookshop in New Hope, Pennsylvania, where D. Harlan Wilson launched his latest collection, BATTLE WITHOUT HONOR OR HUMANITY: VOLUME 1.
And finally, my book haul for the weekend! I’m excited that I got a jump on my Christmas shopping for this year.
- LUNA MARIS by Steven Archer
- BETTER HAUNTED HOMES AND GARDENS by Jennifer Barnes
- DAUGHTERS OF LILITH by Donna Lynch and Steven Archer
- ALL THE DARKNESS IN THE WORLD by Andy Deane
- LADIES AND OTHER VICIOUS CREATURES by Donna Lynch
Reblogged this on John Edward Lawson and commented:
In which author & editor J.L. Gribble not only delivers a great event recap (with pics!)…she also plugs my Instagram account, making it the best con report ever.
I’m jealous of the penitentiary tour you went on! I very much want to start doing those. Also, LOVE THE CAT. I want to pick him up and give him lots of cuddles!
Great review of the con! It was good to hang with you; the cemetery was especially fun for some reason. May I reprint the photo of my Uncanny talk on my blog coverage (or if you have others, send along to me via email?)
Just sent you all the pics I took. 🙂
Just sent you all the pics I took. 🙂